Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-11-03
THE RECORD.
WHO HAS ADVANCED THE CAUSE or
LABOR IN THE PASTl

The Question Answered by . Rsvisw of
the History of One of the Great Par
ties of the Country.
The Democratic state committee is fur
nishing the country press with the claim
that the Democratic party is the friend
of labor, and IN connection with this
claim, they cite some legislation in Ohio
which is claimed to be in the interest of
labor. The truth is that the Democratic
party has never put upon the statute
books of Ohio single law in the interest
of labor, but it has surrendered to every
monopolistic scheme, and every corrupt
scheme that was ever proposed.
The last Republican general assembly
passed more laws for the benefit of labor
than was ever before passed in the his
tory of Ohio. House bill No. 1, by Mr..
Haley, effectually does away with the
Pinkerton interference wherever there ID
a strike in Ohio, and it never mentions
PinkertOn once. 1t is an earnest, honest
law, that does just what it was intended
it should do.
House bill No. $50, by Mr.. Cope, strikes
quiring employers to pay their working
men in money every two weeks. 1t de-
stoys the pcrnicious truck system, with
out mentioning script, orders, tokens, or
truck anywhere in the enactment. The
Democratic party claims credit for hav-
ing passed the mechanics lien law, but
its double dealing hypocrisy is illustrated
in the enactment. The Democratic me-
chanics' lien law was law that gave the
cont: actor and the person furnishing ma
terisl lien on the building for the
ani punt of their claim.
It was a Republican legislature in an
art passed March 5th, 1887, that for the
first time in Ohio, gave mechanics lien.
The old law gave the contractor a lien
and the person furnising the material
lien, but the carpenters, the hod carriers,
the brick layers, and the mechanics bad
TO take their chances for their pay. The
Republican law reversed the Democratic
idea and gave the mechanic the first lien,
the sub-contFactOr the second lien, and
the contractor the third lien, instead of
the contractor the first lien, and the sub
contractor and mechanic no lien at all
The script law that the Democrats claim
credit for passing, every one knows had
hole through it that permitted the use of
script.
The Democrats claim credit for a reso-
luton to investigate the cause of the coal
miners strike in the Hooking Valley,
passed by Democratic majority, all the
Republicans voting for it. But Demo-
cratic committee appointed to investi-
gate, turned the investigation into roar
ing farce. Instead of investigating the
cause of the strike, they began to in
vestigate the number of hoppers that had
been burned; to hunt for lawless acts
that they imagined the miners had per-
petrated, and were continuing in this
way until the Republicans in the senate
introduced a resolution to stop it, requir-
ing the committee to carry out the pur-
pose of the resolution which was to inves-
tigate the cause of the strike and not the
effect.
Itwas Republican brain that conceived,
originated and wrote the child labor law,
a Republican legislator, Mr.. Haley, who
introduced it, Republican votes that
passed it and a Republican legislature
which perfected it.
The Republican party has originated
and passed every law state or national in
the interest of labor and gave US the
homestead law, the credit for which
Democrats are now trying to steal
The Democratic party's friendship for
the laboring man, is the friendship of the
wolf to the lamb.
We repeat again that there is not law
upon the statute books in the interest of
labor that is not the result of Republican